AMSTERDAM  An order obliging farms to keep their poultry indoors comes into effect on Monday in the Netherlands.

Dutch Agriculture Minister Cees Veerman confirmed the new regulation on Friday as a means to prevent an outbreak of bird flu in the Netherlands during the bird migration season.

Farmers can decide whether to keep their birds in hen coops or in any other structure that will prevent contact between the poultry and wild birds. Chickens kept by hobbyists do not fall under the regulations.

Germany introduced a similar outdoor ban for poultry on its farms on Thursday.

Reuters news agency reported that Russia has warned that an outbreak of the H5N1 strain

of bird flu recently identified in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk could spread to Europe and the Middle East, as migratory birds move into warmer areas before winter after nesting in Siberia.

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